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One issue is that housing prices have squeezed out budgets for furnishings. Everyone has a million-dollar house (two million, in my town) full of Ikea. I, mysel

One issue is that housing prices have squeezed out budgets for furnishings. Everyone has a million-dollar house (two million, in my town) full of Ikea. I, myself, have a house that I got for much much less, full of fancy-ass Italian designer furniture, because at that time I had plenty of money left over after paying for housing. The dealer of said furniture went out of business, though, as the housing crisis accelerated. Recently I lived for a bit in Paris and I noticed there are furniture and interior design shops all over the place. There are almost none left in the Bay Area.

dehrmann 3y ago
I disagree a bit because if you can afford a $2M home, $20k isn't that much, but can buy enough nice furniture. It's probably a bigger deal when it's a $400k house, but the furniture would still be $20k.
- resolutebat 3y ago
  We may have different definitions of "nice" here: it's easy to drop $20k on a single Italian leather sofa.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    Maybe but I don't think that is the problem with their rebuttal. In reality the fraction of income people are spending on housing is going up. Their incomes are not proportional to their housing costs.
    - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
      More renters, too. A home owner, unless they are forced to move constantly, will often have a frozen mortgage payment which will allow the purchase of more expensive furnishings in later years. For renters the rent will keep increasing, eating up the increase in income.
      - dehrmann 3y ago
        But that hypothetical 20% down payment was in the stock market averaging 9% returns. Real estate in normal (not Bay Area) markets is more like 4%, but that doesn't include property tax or maintenance. The math isn't as clearly advantageous as conventional wisdom likes to claim, assuming you have the restraint to invest the money.
        anonymouskimmer 3y ago
        Renters are typically of lower socioeconomic status, so don't have that down payment invested in the stock market either.
  - ChickeNES 3y ago
    Personally, I could be a multi-millionaire and I wouldn't drop 20k on a sofa.

dehrmann 3y ago

I disagree a bit because if you can afford a $2M home, $20k isn't that much, but can buy enough nice furniture. It's probably a bigger deal when it's a $400k house, but the furniture would still be $20k.

resolutebat 3y ago
We may have different definitions of "nice" here: it's easy to drop $20k on a single Italian leather sofa.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  Maybe but I don't think that is the problem with their rebuttal. In reality the fraction of income people are spending on housing is going up. Their incomes are not proportional to their housing costs.
  - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
    More renters, too. A home owner, unless they are forced to move constantly, will often have a frozen mortgage payment which will allow the purchase of more expensive furnishings in later years. For renters the rent will keep increasing, eating up the increase in income.
    - dehrmann 3y ago
      But that hypothetical 20% down payment was in the stock market averaging 9% returns. Real estate in normal (not Bay Area) markets is more like 4%, but that doesn't include property tax or maintenance. The math isn't as clearly advantageous as conventional wisdom likes to claim, assuming you have the restraint to invest the money.
      - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
        Renters are typically of lower socioeconomic status, so don't have that down payment invested in the stock market either.
- ChickeNES 3y ago
  Personally, I could be a multi-millionaire and I wouldn't drop 20k on a sofa.